A Supreme Court criminal board of appeal on Thursday overturned local judicial council’s decision to reject a furlough request by a notorious urban terrorist serving 11 life sentences for an same-number of murders.
The unanimous decision comes after the high court’s chief prosecutor, Xeni Dimitriou, intervened and essentially appealed the decision by a judicial council in the central city of Volos to reject the request by “November 17” arch-assassin Dimitris Koufodinas. That rejection followed the veto of a prosecutor serving on a three-member correctional facility furlough council at the prison farm where Koufodinas is incarcerated. The prison’s warden and a social worker attached to the correctional facility voted in favor of granting another four-day furlough to the erstwhile beekeeper, known by his alias of “Loukas” or “poison-hand” by his fellow terrorists.
Thursday’s decision by the high court council means that a Volos judicial council, with other members serving, will again decide on whether Koufodinas is temporarily released.
A barrage of attacks, vandalism, threats and hooliganism has been recorded around Greece, must mostly in central Athens, over the past two weeks by self-styled anarchists, “anarchist collectives”, anti-state gangs and antifa-like protestors demanding that the convicted urban terrorist receive another furlough, some 17 years into his sentence.
The most prominent incidents involve the lobbing of paint “bombs” at main entrance of Parliament, above the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and similar “intervention” against the US ambassador in Athens’ residence. The two sites are, supposedly, some of the “best-guarded” locations in the Greek capital.
Meanwhile, the convicted terrorist started a hunger strike some 10 days ago.
Criticism against a furlough for Koufodinas cites the fact that he remains unrepentant, continues to refuse to disclose where weapons used by the terror gang wound up, and more recently, used a recent furlough to stroll through central Athens very close to where a handful of N17 assassinations and bombings took place.
